IREX Visiting Scholar

Hye Sharzhoom, October 2002, Vol. 24, No. 1

Tatevik Ekezian staff writer

Dr. Harutyun Aleksanyan from Yerevan, Armenia, is visiting California State University,
Fresno on an IREX Contemporary Issues Fellowship. His three-month stay, formally hosted
by the Armenian Studies Program, began August 29, following a three day orientation
in Washington DC. Barlow Der Mugrdechian of the Armenian Studies Program is acting
as faculty sponsor/advisor for Dr. Aleksanyan while he is in Fresno. Dr. Aleksanyan
will participate in a one-month internship in Los Angeles to conclude his stay in
the United States.

Dr. Aleksanyan is the president of the Elegia Cultural non-governmental organization.
He is also an institutional assessor for the NGO Strengthening Program of the World
Learning Organization in Armenia. He also taught history of the Armenian Diaspora
and modern world history at the “David Anhakht” Humanitarian University in Yerevan.

Dr. Aleksanyan is delighted to share his experiences with non-governmental organizations
(NGO’s). His purpose in coming to the United States is to get acquainted with how
non-profit organizations function. Since NGOs are relatively new in Armenia, he intends
to investigate how NGOs in the United States function. He is studying the related
literature in the field as well.

He wants to help Armenia with its NGOs and their improvement in development, challenges,
and perspectives. Most NGOs in Armenia are dealing directly with social issues. Each
is basically set up as a union of people who work to improve the country’s social
and environmental problems.

Dr. Aleksanyan hopes to be able to return to Armenia with a compatible paradigm from
the United States that he can implement in his native land. This way, he hopes the
model he puts together after his analysis and research in the United States can improve
the organizational capacity of NGOs in Armenia. For example, Armenian NGO governance,
operational and management systems, human resources, financial resources, service
delivery, external relations, and advocacy would all improve tremendously.

The NGOs in Armenia are in their developing stages. Dr. Aleksanyan wants to work
to help increase organizational skills by providing training and the understanding
and application of better skills in these organizations. He wants to acquire skills
and go back to Armenia to apply what he has learned and to teach and train others.

While in Fresno, Dr. Aleksanyan has attended several seminars in personnel development,
grant writing and management, and financial control. He has focused especially on
financial control because there is a lack of fundraising strategies in Armenia. He
is sitting in on a variety of courses at the university, including a course in non-profit
management. As an international guest he was invited to participate in a Fresno area
“Non-Profit Organizations in the 21st Century” conference.

Dr. Aleksanyan is President of “Elegia” NGO, whose main purpose is to support the
development of Armenian culture; to assist and facilitate creative groups, talented
artists, and children active in culture; to facilitate the development of capacity
building in the area of art business; and to preserve and develop the culture of national
minorities. “Elegia” also helps talented children involved in culture and contributes
to creating cultural networks nationally and internationally as well. They have created
programs with Georgia and Azerbaijan, and have put together joint projects to create
organizational networks, exhibitions, and concerts, hoping that all these activities
will assist in political stability in the region.

Dr. Aleksanyan plans to share his experience in Armenia, doing assessments using
the IAI (Institutional Analysis Instrumental) method, developed by World Learning
Organization, to establish each non-governmental stage of development.

Dr. Aleksanyan has lectured to an Armenian Studies class at Fresno State and he discussed
“Advocacy and Coalition Building” to a group of students from the American Humanics
Program at Fresno State. He also went on a field trip with students to the “Stone
Soup” NGO in Fresno to conduct an assessment of the organization.

The reason Dr. Aleksanyan believes that the United States can set good examples for
the NGOs in Armenia to follow is because America’s civil society has been developed
over a long period of time, and Armenia’s civil society only since its independence
in 1991.

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